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ANGELA:
“Good morning, Everly. I hope you don’t mind the chains and the extreme temperature. We’re keeping it colder in here to make it a bit more difficult for you to use any mental pushes in our direction.”
Angela lifted a groggy head, but it flopped back down to her chest. Her naked chest. Why was she naked? Why were they calling her Everly?
Everly was dead.
Wasn’t she?
Her memories hit with a vengeance. No, she’d found Everly. Everly was safe within the walls of Xenia. She, Angela, was pretending to be her twin sister.
“I don’t have...”
“Of course, you don’t,” the voice said, softly mocking. Angela forced her head up enough to see the woman watching a video playing across the bare wall.
The scene where Everly had killed their father.
He’d had cameras in his laboratory. How had they never known? They’d been so stupid, so naïve.
On screen, Angela lay unconscious, filled with drugs while Everly magically made things move with her mind. Her sister’s power was incredible; objects as large as metal tables floated easily in the air.
But the reason why Crested Ute was enthralled with them became obvious. Their father lay on the ground, slaughtered, his reproductive organs destroyed. Subconsciously, Everly didn’t want him to create any more “special” children. They were it. And Crested Ute was going to utilize them as much as they could.
And now, Crested Ute was going to use every “trigger” imaginable to get Everly to expend those psychic powers again. This time, they knew the trigger. Attack what Everly loved.
Angela.
“Any word on the sister’s location?” The voice in the background was deep and smooth. Lulling. But Angela fought with herself to stay awake. To listen.
“The last image captured from a drone showed that she was heading toward Xenia to find her sister.”
“So she should be trying to blend among the homeless camps about now. Find her and bring her here. If Everly wants to save Angela again, we’ll have to recreate the scene. Except this time, we’ve got you drugged and sluggish, my little telekinetic doll. But it was a smart move, pretending to be Angela while you snuck out of the city. You must have discovered she wasn’t dead? But you forgot that we know Angela’s the ugly twin.” He laughed.
Her eyes popped open. The round face that peered down at her was white, his eyelids so pink he looked slightly piggish.
“Go to sleep, Everly.” He smiled. “We’ll find Angela and bring her to you. You haven’t seen her since that scar of the video was healed, have you? You’ll see what I mean by ugly.” He shuddered. “And once we have you both together? We’ll see which one lives.”
Shit. Her plan had backfired. They wanted them both. She’d assumed they wanted Everly and once they got her—even if it was Angela pretending to be her—they’d lose interest. But that was never their plan.
The only good news is they thought she was Everly. Perhaps security here would be more lax since Everly had never trained to fight...or to kill.
If she could just wiggle the tube from her arm long enough to get the drugs from her system. But no, she was bound tight.
He pushed a button on the monitor and more drugs flooded her veins.
* * * * *
“SINCE KADEN WAS ABLE to help the two of you see the future, we’ll need you to collaborate and remember as many details as you can about the location where she’s being kept,” Robyn said.
“There was nothing,” Zee said, glancing at Everly. She didn’t seem to be too thrilled over his announcement that he wasn’t annulling his mateship with her sister.
“I could only see she was chained and drugged. The inside of the room was set up with lights. Kind of like my father’s old-fashioned surgical suite with bright lights. All white and light blue. There were no clues as to where the location was,” Everly said, glaring at him.
“Like I said,” Zee said.
Everly narrowed her eyes at him. She carried a chip on her shoulder—perhaps breaking her mate’s leg wasn’t as forgivable for humans.
“Well, we’re going to work together to figure this out,” Robyn snapped. “I’m going to get Kaden. We’ll see if he can re-create another vision for you two. In the meantime, I’d suggest you talk.” She stormed out of the conference room.
“I know you’re upset with me,” Zee said. “But Thane healed well.”
Everly raised her brows. “You think that’s why I’m upset?”
“Isn’t it?”
“No,” she said. “Thane is healed from the incident. He forgives you, therefore I do. I’m upset because you think you can force my sister to be your mate like you tried to force me to be your mate by simply getting rid of Thane. I could forgive that. You were out of your mind. But now? This is your correct frame of mind...and you’re no different. You think you can force Angela to be your mate.”
He leaned in toward her. “Nothing could be further from the truth. I know your sister’s scent inside and out. She was my life, every minute of the day, for three weeks. Everly, I’m the best person for the job. I could pick up her trail despite the chemicals flooding her system. If you and she were in the same room, I could differentiate between you blindfolded. She is my mate.”
“Yet you were confused three weeks ago as to who was who.”
“I wasn’t in my right mind three weeks ago. I ran on instincts and nothing else. Now I have all of my senses at my disposal. As far as I can tell, you have two choices. Demand that I step down, and risk your sister’s death. Or allow me to retrieve my mate.”
She leaned in, as ferocious as any Xeno Sapien he’d seen. “I can demand you step down and let trusted others retrieve my sister. And then when she returns? She’ll tell you to hand over the annulment.”
He glared at her. She glared at him. And then Robyn walked in with Kaden in her arms.
“You’ve gotten nowhere, I see. I hope, for Angela’s sake, that Kaden can.”
She handed her son to Zee, who settled him into his lap with ease. He cuddled against him, but made no move to grasp his fingers which usually signaled a vision.
“Here, sweetie,” Everly said. “Want my finger again?”
Kaden gurgled, taking her finger. But that was it. He squeezed her finger like a normal baby, not as an advanced hybrid being with alien DNA.
“Let’s just play a while then, shall we?” Zee said, bouncing Kaden. Kaden giggled, dropping Everly’s hand.
“Let’s try again,” Everly said, holding her finger out to Kaden. He grasped it, so Zee held his out for Kaden’s other hand.
A vision slammed into him, a tall, mirrored-glass building in the center of Earth-Ground. The building they saw on newsfeeds that promoted the airport.
He opened his eyes to see Everly and Robyn staring at him. “Did you see it?” he asked Everly, unsure of the building’s name.
“N-no. I didn’t get anything.”
“You didn’t get a vision?” Robyn asked.
“No.”
Robyn turned to Zee. “What did you see?”
“A building. Tall, a skyscraper. We see it frequently on the news feeds. The one that leads to the airport.”
“Zealish, there are tons of buildings with that description,” Robyn said.
“But I’d know it if I saw it. She was there.”
“They wouldn’t keep her in the middle of Earth-Ground, not so close to the airport. Radio waves are interfered with, which would disrupt their medical equipment. They would want somewhere remote and deserted. Maybe on a bad side of Earth-Ground where they could disappear and no one would talk.”
“I’m telling you what I saw. Maybe Kaden means if I can get there, I can scent her trail. Find a clue.”
“It’s not much to go on. Let me get Jason and Steele on the assembly of the team.” Robyn picked up Kaden as she left.
“I’ll make you a deal,” Everly said softly.
He turned his gaze to her.
“Bring my sister back safely, and you can have her.”
He intended to have her no matter what, but it was easier to work with Everly than against her. Besides which, a tiny part of him worried that Angela may not be receptive to remaining his mate should she return. The last thing he wanted was his mate living away from him—and with Thane and Everly.
“Have her?” he asked.
She nodded. “If she’s uninjured. If she’s returned unharmed, I’ll even encourage her to give you a chance.”
A chance was all he needed.
“You won’t hold my...looks against me?” He had to know.
“Your looks?” Her eyebrows knotted. “No. I’m wary of the violence barely contained within you. Within your other form. But in this case, it may serve my sister.”
“I’ll tear up anyone who’s touched her,” he snarled.
Everly leaned in. “If she’s harmed, the deal’s off.”
“If she’s harmed, I’ll kill everyone in sight.”
